


Twice Lived

by disasterboy



Series: die with your mask on [1]
Category: Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Album), Paramore
Genre: Agender Character, Alternate Universe - Fabulous Killjoys Fusion, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Resurrection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-29
Updated: 2017-09-29
Packaged: 2018-12-22 14:18:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11969163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/disasterboy/pseuds/disasterboy
Summary: After years of learning to live without Half Noise by their side, the Phoenix Witch visits Dream Killer in... well, in a dream.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> told you guys i would be back :) enjoy the tooth-rotting zaylor fluff! (also, im not good at killjoy names, please excuse the lack of originality)  
> obviously half noise is zac and color rush is josh  
> dream killer is taylor  
> miss misery is hayley  
> and nine knives is jeremy

The way Half Noise died was fucking stupid. It was heroic and brave, and it saved Color Rush's ass, but it was a stupid thing to do.

Really, when they thought about it, Dream Killer decided that it was Nine Knives' fault. The fucker, gods rest his soul, was supposed to be on watch while the rest of them slept, but apparently he had fallen asleep at his post. Killer understood, really; they had just gotten back from visiting Lazarus' gang up North, and all of them were tired from driving and fighting.

While everyone was asleep, a squad of Dracs had showed up at their front door, and Knives barely had time to wake up before he was running as fast as he could into the shack they all called home. Everyone was awake and fighting within ten seconds; Miss Misery had shot down four of them as soon as she set foot out of her bedroom. 

Half Noise and Color Rush, usually two parts of one destructive force, were still mostly asleep when the fighting had started, and they got off to a bad start.

Color Rush stumbled and dropped his gun, and a Drac decided to seize the distraction to land a killing shot.

Half Noise wasn't about to let him die, so he stepped in front of Rush and took his brother's place in the Phoenix Witch's ranks.

The rest was history Miss Misery and Dream Killer weren't willing to relive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the second chapter will be up soon, i promise :) the deadline for this draft is soon, and i just wanted to publish this before it was deleted


	2. Chapter 2

It had been three months since Half Noise died, and Dream Killer hadn't stepped foot out of their room since. The one-worded responses they gave their fellow gang members was the only reason the other three hadn't broken their door down yet.

By the end of the first month, Color Rush and Nine Knives had given up trying to talk them out of sulking, but Miss Misery never gave up. Every day she would sit outside of Killer's door and talk to them, even if they barely ever responded. She was still talking to them when they finally showed their face.

They were the human equivalent of a huge fucking mess. They looked like a skeleton, with skin clinging to their bones from not eating for three months, and their curly hair was even more greasy and unkempt than usual. Half Noise's mask was clutched in one of their hands, and a brand new envelope was in the other.

"Killer!" Misery was instantly on her feet, wrapping her arms around her best friend. Soon, the other two members of their gang had joined in on the hug, and they all stayed like that until Killer had to push them away.

"I need to go visit the Zones.", they said after several seconds of awkward silence.

"You mean out West? Near Battery City?", Knives asked. Killer nodded, and Misery frowned.

"Why?"

"Sandman contacted me over the radio about a week ago. Said something big was happening tomorrow, and that they needed my help."

"Why specifically you, though?", Misery questioned. "Why not all of us?"

"And why is Sandman in the West? Thought they lived up North.", Color Rush cut in. So far he had been silent, and Dream Killer had all but forgotten he was there.

"Long story short, Kobra Kid found some bombs out in the Zones, so he called Sandman, and Sandman called Arsenic and I for back-up. Plus, the Mailbox is out in Zone Five, and I thought..." It was then that Misery understood what the letter and mask were for; they were trying to make sure Half Noise reached the Phoenix Witch safely.

"And you didn't mention it to us before now because...?", Knives snapped. Apparently the sentimentality was lost on him, and Misery punched his arm to get him to shut up.

"Because I was busy writing. I'll be back in less than a week, I promise." Grudgingly, the other three agreed, and Killer shoved the envelope, mask, and some food in a backpack, grabbed their motorcycle helmet, and ran out the door after saying goodbye to their friends.

* * *

Color Rush was the next to go. Unlike Half Noise, however, their departure didn't lie in the hands of the Phoenix Witch. Instead of dying in a fire fight, Color Rush had packed up his shit after a nasty fight with Miss Misery- and, by extension, Dream Killer, since you couldn't fight one without also fighting the other- and left for Termina in the middle of the night.

The morning after found all three of the remaining gang members wide awake, kneeling next to what looked like an old-world mailbox covered in paintings and words. Half Noise's name was clearly written on the side underneath a pink heart.

"Do you think the Phoenix Witch will accept this?", Misery asked. Knives scoffed, a firm disbeliever of the Witch, but Killer only nodded. They had just come back from their visit to the Zones, and one of their legs had been replaced with a prosthetic one after the real leg had been blown off by a bomb. Several letters were tucked away in their waistband, and as Misery watched they finished up another letter and sealed it in an envelope identical to the rest. They were all addressed to Half Noise, and Killer took them all out and dumped them through the lid of the mailbox.

Killer had pitched the idea the morning before; they thought that since the original Mailbox used to communicate with the dead was too far away, they thought they would make another one for the South so they could talk to Half Noise more often. Misery was all too happy to help, but Knives took a bit more convincing, and it was this idea that had sparked the fight between Color Rush and Misery.

After the letters were all inside the mailbox, Misery and Knives picked it up and carried it to the front of their hideout, not setting it down until they were far enough away that any BLI employees passing by wouldn't be able to discern their sand dune-covered hideout from the other sand dunes in the desert. Not another word was said as the three of them went back inside after the new Mailbox had been set down.

The next morning, the letters were gone, and there was a red hand print on the side of the Mailbox that hadn't been there before.

* * *

"Killer."

"What?" Dream Killer looked up from the letter they were writing to see Miss Misery standing over them, hands on her hips. She was blocking out the harsh sunlight, and with the sunglasses they were wearing she seemed to glow. Killer turned back to their letter a second later, and Misery sighed.

"I'm going down to Termina. Atomic Storm is missing, and Solar Skate said he saw Knives near the Astral Cobra's place, so I'm going to go help look for both of them." This caught Killer's attention, and they looked up again in shock.

"Knives is alive?"

"Maybe. If anything, he's free from the Drac mask they put on him. He might just be a ghost, but you never know."

Nine Knives had died a few months earlier, his body being carried off by a squad of Dracs. The last Killer had seen of him was one of the Dracs putting one of those dreaded masks on top of his head, and then the doors of the BLI van had closed and their friend's body was being carried away towards Battery City.

"I'll come with you.", Killer offered, already standing up, but Misery pushed them back down.

"No, Killer. Someone has to stay here and make sure nobody raids our place while I'm gone." As much as Killer wanted to go, they knew she was right. Their base held some pretty valuable stuff, and someone needed to stay there at all times to make sure that stuff wasn't stolen or damaged.

"Tell me if you find him, alright?", Killer asked. Misery nodded, stooping down to give her best friend a hug before speeding off on their shared motorcycle. Killer sighed, turning back to the letter at hand and adding another paragraph before signing their name and shoving it in the mailbox they were resting against.

* * *

Two years after Knives had reappeared, Dream Killer woke up to find themselves surrounded by grass. Not the sparse, brittle grass that grows in the desert, but thick, fragrant, green grass. They were shirtless and lying on their back in the strange grass, and when they looked at the sky they were shocked to find grey clouds covering the sun. As they watched, thunder crackled from high above, and rain started pouring down over their body, chilling them to the bone since they lacked a shirt or jacket of any kind to protect them from the icy rains. Killer had to sit up to avoid getting water in their eyes, but when they did they finally noticed the figure standing in front of them.

Many people in the South dismissed any rumors of the Phoenix Witch being real. Miss Misery swears up and down that she exists, but Color Rush and Nine Knives had been skeptical at best about her existence. 

Yet here she was, standing in front of Dream Killer in all her glory.

Instantly, Killer was on their feet, staring back at the painted hockey mask. She was tall and skinny, with spindly arms and legs extending out of a thick black fur coat like little twigs sticking out of a thick tree trunk. She was nothing like how Killer had imagined her previously, and the killjoy simply stood there in awe for a few seconds before snapping out of the trance in order to realize she was staring back at them.

Neither of them spoke for what felt like an eternity, with the rain falling softly around them and the breeze stirring Killer's curls and the feathers spread across the Witch's body. 

After a while in silence, the Witch waved her hand in an arc motion, and the empty space behind her started shimmering and shifting before their very eyes. Thousands upon thousands of people appeared out of thin air after her hand came to rest by her side. There were a few faces that Killer recognized: Fun Ghoul was there, signature smirk on their face and their right arm still missing; someone who looked exactly like DJ Arsenic was standing next to Vinyl Heart, soft smiles spread out across their faces; Killer's own mother, looking exactly as she had when she had died, waved at them. Two faces were missing, though, and no matter how hard Killer looked they couldn't find Nine Knives or Color Rush anywhere in the crowd. With another wave of the Witch's hand, the vast ranks of the dead vanished.

"I've gotten all of your letters, my child.", the Witch said. Killer couldn't describe her voice if their life depended on it, because every time they tried the sound escaped their memory. "Every single day for the past seven years, you wrote to him." Something dropped into Killer's hands, and as they looked down they found a letter, identical to the hundreds of ones they had sent to Half Noise, save for the name on the envelope. It was addressed to them instead.

"He wrote one back?" Their voice was shaky and weak, but the Witch nodded nonetheless. With trembling hands, Dream Killer tore open the envelope. What they found, though, was a mostly blank sheet of paper. Only two words were written: _look up_.

"What?" Killer stared at the letter in total and utter confusion for a couple of moments until a hand landed on their arm and made them look up from the letter in shock. The hand wasn't wrapped in red bandages, so it didn't belong to the Phoenix Witch; instead, the outside was covered in familiar scars, and Killer could feel rough callouses rubbing against their skin. Their line of sight slowly traveled from the hand up to the arm connected to the hand, and eventually came to rest on the face of the person before them.

As they took in Half Noise's soft smile for the first time in seven years, Dream Killer felt their heart shatter all over again. It felt like the emotions they had kept at bay for such a long time were finally flooding over them, and they felt again the love, the agony, the loss that Half Noise's death had instilled in them. 

"You grew your hair out.", Half Noise observed. Killer didn't reply, but instead launched forward and gathered their dead boyfriend in their arms. Half Noise laughed- music to Killer's ears after going so long without hearing it- and hugged them back.

"I missed you, too." Again, Killer remained silent, if only because they would start screaming and crying if they opened their mouth. The two of them stood motionless for what seemed like hours, just taking in each other's presence after being separated for so long. Eventually, the Phoenix Witch returned, placing a gentle yet firm hand on Half Noise's shoulder in order to pull the two lovers apart.

"It is time." Dream Killer could only watch hopelessly as Half Noise disappeared into the fog that had sprung up around them upon the Witch's arrival. They felt as if some lost part of them had been finally put back into place, but as they watched that missing piece was ripped out again, leaving Killer even more broken and defenseless than they had been the first time they lost Half Noise.

The Phoenix Witch's face could not be seen, but she seemed to be expressing her sympathy towards Dream Killer by plucking a feather out of the great cloak of fur she kept wrapped around her body and weaving it into their curly hair. A cold and rough hand fell upon their shoulder, comforting them in the slightest way. Killer closed their eyes and took a deep breath, prepared to thank the Phoenix Witch for one last chance to be with their soulmate, but when they opened their eyes they were back in the waking world. The stone ceiling of their hide-out loomed over them, and the familiar scent of sand and re-fried beans replaced the aroma of wet grass and clean air. 

Without a word, Killer stood up and made their way out of their room. By the time they pushed open the heavy plank of wood they used as a make-shift door in front of their hideout, tears had already made their vision blurry, but they still managed to find Miss Misery sitting outside, eyes scanning the horizon intently. 

"Morning, sleepyhead.", she called without looking back. Still not speaking, Killer plopped down next to their best friend and let their head fall on her shoulder. 

"Something happen?"

"I had a dream about Half Noise." Instantly Misery was sitting up straight, removing Killer's head from her shoulder in order to stare at them relentlessly until they gave up and told her about it. 

"That's pretty fucked up, man.", Misery said once they had finished. Killer only sighed, reaching up to wipe away the tear tracks running down their face. 

"I know." They turned their face towards the ground, starting to count the dots in the dust from their tears, when they heard Misery gasp.

"Wait, wait. Hold on." Killer looked up at Misery in confusion, who was staring at the top of their head. "Didn't you say the Witch left you a feather in your dream?"

"Yeah. Why?" A smile replaced the frown on her face, and she reached up and de-tangled something from their hair. When her hand came back into Killer's line of sight, a big, black feather was contrasting her pale fingers.

"I don't think that was a dream." Killer stared at the feather in shock and bewilderment for so long that Misery was worried they had lost any and all ability to speak, but suddenly their head snapped up and they stared at Misery instead.

"The grave. We need to check the grave." Killer was on their feet before Misery could even comprehend what they meant, and by the time Misery had started running Killer was already halfway towards Half Noise's grave.

Burials weren't very common in the South; normally, if someone went down fighting, the others had to leave the body in order to save their own asses.

They had made an exception for Half Noise, though, and for seven years the headstone had stood boldly by the edge of the road as if to taunt evil in the fact that someone who had fallen by its hands had found peace. 

When they reached the grave, Dream Killer found a large pile of dirt and clay an empty hole where there should have been a body and desert flowers growing out of the ground. 

"Holy shit." That was Miss Misery, slowing to a stop right behind Killer. As the two of them watched, a hand reached up from inside of the hole. Half Noise slowly made his way out of the grave, skin and clothes stained red from the clay but otherwise showing no signs of decay. While Miss Misery dashed forward and helped drag their resurrected gang mate out of his grave, Killer stood stock still and watched with an open mouth. They felt like they were in another dream, and all of this was happening to someone else.

This couldn't be real.

Half Noise was making his way over, leaning on Misery for support.

There was no possible way this was real.

He was slowly relearning how to use his legs, since they hadn't been used for seven years, and soon he was taking small, wobbly steps towards Killer.

There was no way-

He was right in front of them now. Slowly, as if each minuscule movement lasted for an eon in itself, Half Noise reached out and took Killer's hand in his own. The moment that skin touched skin was when Dream Killer finally returned to reality. They shut their eyes, but when they opened them Half Noise was still there, smile as bright as it ever was before he had died. 

"You're real."

"As real as you are.", Half Noise replied. The tears were back in Killer's eyes, but this time they were tears of joy. They reached out and pulled Half Noise in for a bone-crushing hug as they both started crying.

After seven years without rain, the desert could finally flourish again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know i cut it short but i really couldn't do anything more with it :) hope yall like it!


End file.
